Category: I-phone

It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

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Daily Update for November 11, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While 11/11/11 is important to people for different reasons, today is Veterans Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day (or Armistice Day) in Commonwealth countries. Veterans Day is a federal holiday for honoring military veterans while Remembrance Day remembers those who died in the line of duty.

However, the resources out there on the App Store for Veterans Day are fairly thin, and it’s sad. I would love to see an app such as the ones the Canadian government has done for Remembrance Day.

• We Remember (Free): We Remember is for our Canadian readers and helps to find a ceremony near you. You also can check out the Veterans Affairs Canada Facebook wall, watch videos from the Veterans Affairs Canada YouTube channel, share the app and download wallpapers. There is also a free Veterans Affairs Canada official app as well.

• USO On*Patrol Magazine HD (Free): This iPad app is the digital edition of the United Service Organization’s On Patrol magazine, which is a quarterly publication which pays tribute to those who serve in the military and remembers the sacrifices they’ve made. They also provide resources to soldiers and veterans for programs geared toward them. There are a great numbers of riveting stories to read, and the magazine makes the digital transition.

• Veterans Photo Effects ($1.99): This allows people to create their own tribute to veterans using patriotic elements within the app. While originally geared toward Memorial Day, it’s been retooled a bit for Veterans Day and is a good program to use with your children if you want to create a tribute page for a loved one and share it with friends. A good future update to this app would be the ability to bring in your own images to use.

Apps for Veterans and Remembrance Day originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It turns out Sprint’s locking down of the iPhone 4S SIM wasn’t exactly a bombshell. Shortly after the iPhone 4S launched, Sprint told Jason Snell of Macworld that the locking policy would eventually go into effect.

According to Sprint, the company will “allow existing customers in good standing to unlock the SIM for international use if needed in the future” if customers explicitly ask for the unlock. That’s decent of them, but it also makes me wonder why Sprint is bothering to lock the SIM in the first place. I doubt very many people are looking to buy the iPhone from Sprint and then migrate to AT&T or one of the other US-based GSM carriers.

Happily, this means Sprint customers will not be locked into exorbitant international roaming rates. Instead, so long as Sprint honors the request to unlock the SIM, customers will be able to swap in a SIM from a local carrier and pay local rates.

While that may sound like a hassle, I can tell you from personal experience that it works quite well; I put an Australian SIM in my NZ iPhone during a weeklong vacation in Melbourne earlier this year, and the process went extremely smoothly. Then again, iPhones sold in New Zealand are never locked to a specific carrier, so that definitely made the process easier than it might have been otherwise.

Sprint iPhone 4S unlocking policy not new, can be undone originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases.

Even though Apple announced over a million downloads of Mac OS X Lion with in the first day of its release, and in October Tim Cook announced that Apple had sold 6 million copies of Lion since its launch, claiming a massive 80% growth over Snow Leopard, according to Chitika, that pace has significantly slowed down. Chitika cites poor stability (Wi-Fi and MacBook Pro battery performance) and dislike of the iOS-like UI features for the slow adoption of the new OS.

Now we’ve all had our gripes with Lion, but from where we’re standing, we’re pretty much happy with what the OS has to offer. So we thought it would be great to see just how many of our TUAW readers are running Mac OS X Lion, as apposed to Snow Leopard, Tiger or another operating system.

[Via BGR]

View Poll

Poll: Which version of Mac OS X are you running? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It only took one phone call to turn Siri’s Dag Kittlaus’s life around. Before the call, he was the head of a Silicon Valley startup and afterwards, he was a multimillionaire working with Apple. In an interview with Norwegian publication E24, Dag Kittlaus talks about his time working at Siri, the sale of his company to Apple and his life as an entrepreneur now that Siri has officially launched in iOS 5.

In the interview, Kittlaus recalls the sacrifices he and his family made during the early years of Siri. It entailed a risky move to Silicon Valley, little money, long hours at work and lots of time away from his family. He also talks about his brief time at Apple after the acquisition. Unlike most companies which are driven by the bottom line, Apple, he says, is driven by the desire to create the best products in the world.

His conversation with reporter Eirik Mosveen is a refreshing, personal look at a Silicon Valley success story. You can read the whole interview on E24’s website.

[Via 9to5mac]

An interview with Dag Kittlaus, the man who sold Siri to Apple originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you run Lion server and have problems with podcast streaming or want to view local volumes on your server, you’ll want to read two new technotes on Apple’s support site. Spotted by MacNN, they will tell you how to setup https to serve up podcasts and how you can tweak your settings to view a mounted local volume or a shared folder via SMB.

One article (Technote TS4126) addresses podcast streaming and SSL certificates, a problem which arose in OS X server 10.7.2. Unlike earlier versions, this version of Lion server streams podcasts using a secure https connection. In this issue, users visiting your Lion server cannot view podcast thumbnails. When they try to playback content, the thumbnail is missing and only a blank window appears.

To fix this issue, server administrators can either purchase a signed security certificate from an established Certificate Authority or use a self-signed certificate. If the admin chooses the self-signed route, users attempting to view a podcast will be presented with a warning about an untrusted certificate. Once the user accepts this certificate as coming from a trusted source, they can gain access to the podcast content.

The other technote HT5028 has two command-line tweaks for server administrators. The first will let admins view any volumes mounted locally on the server and the second will let them access shared folders over SMB. Once entered, admins will have to reboot the server to make these changes stick.

Apple addresses Lion server issues with new technotes originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 5.0.1 seems a bit of a mixed bag for users, and that’s probably a charitable description. Apple support boards are filling up with page after page of reports from users that their iPhone battery life is worse than it was before. Some users say their battery life was fine until the upgrade. Others say it is far worse, and a few are seeing some improvement. Since one of the main features of the update was to fix battery life bugs, it’s hard to call this update anything but a failure. Even if the reports are hallucinatory, the PR is very, very bad. Think ‘antennagate‘.

Here’s a sample of some of the comments:

“Was running iOS 5.0 yesterday and had great battery life on my iPhone 4…. Update with OTA last night to iOS 5.0.1 and now just sitting at work and not surfing it is down to 55%. It has only been off the charger for 2 1/2 hours…. I haven’t even talked on it today. Wow Apple… what a fix!”

“After installing iOS 5 in my iPhone 4s I noticed that my battery was drying 1% for every 1Min 36Sec. I believe every 1hr 20 Min i will hzave to charge my mobile. And there is no option to downgrade to 5.0. Irritating.”

“Yes have the same problem. Was looking forward to having normal battery life on my new phone, but the new 5.0.1 update actually made it worse. I’m about to throw away my iPhone and go back to a blackberry… At least the blackberry held its charge for 2 full days.”

In my own experience my battery life dropped dramatically when I installed iOS 5 on an iPhone 4 last month. When I upgraded to the iPhone 4S there wasn’t any improvement, and the battery life was certainly behind the performance I had experienced before iOS 5 appeared. One bright spot was when I applied the 5.0.1 update from an airport via their WiFi. What an improvement over tethering to a computer — the whole process took about 12 minutes.

Of course all the battery life experiences are anecdotal, and it may be that we’re all using the new features so heavily that we’re driving battery performance down. Of course, that won’t explain why phones just sitting by themselves overnight are draining faster the before iOS 5 or iOS 5.0.1 appeared. It’s pretty obvious there is some fire under all this smoke.

Apple hasn’t commented on any of this new furor so far, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see iOS 5.0.2 coming to an iPhone near you soon.

[Editor’s note: I’m seeing improved battery life, but it’s clear there is something at work here and it’ll probably take Apple a bit longer to figure out why some iPhones (mine is an iPhone 4) are draining faster and some are not. – Victor Agreda, Jr.]

Update: Apple confirmed to All Things D that the battery drain issues may persist for some.

iOS 5.0.1 upgrade may not fix your battery woes (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s your chance to get a humorous behind-the-scenes look at an Apple retail store. The employee-made video is an entertaining look at Apple’s Steps of Service which are introduced during a new employee’s Core Training. The first five steps according to the video spell out APPLE:

• A – Approach the customer with a “warm welcome”
• P – Position, Permission, Probe – Tell the customer what you want to do, ask permission, and then ask them questions to determine their needs.
• P – Present the appropriate product solution that fits their needs.
• L – Listen to their concerns.
• E – End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.

The video is a rare look at Apple’s closely guarded retail polices. Other official training videos reportedly exist, but they have never leaked out like this. According to a Macrumors commenter, this particular video was filmed after hours by employees and was shown once at a store meeting. It was left to die on the Internet until Macrumors stumbled upon it and brought it back to life.

[Via ifoapplestore]

Retail training video shows Apple Store behind the scenes originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has begun taking unlocked iPhone 4S pre-orders in the US Online Apple Store. The preorders list a 1 to 2-week ship time and and are available for all three storage capacities in white and black. I just put an order in for my unlocked iPhone 4S and the confirmation email lists a delivery date of between November 28 – December 5. Currently unlocked iPhone 4S pre-orders are for delivery only and cannot be placed online and then picked up in an Apple retail store.

Unlocked iPhone 4S models come in both white and black and cost US$649 for the 16 GB version, $749 for the 32 GB version, and $849 for the 64 GB version. Unlocked iPhones allow a user to simply insert a carrier’s micro-SIM card in to use the phone on any GSM network in the world. The unlocked iPhones will not work on CDMA networks, including Sprint and Verizon in the US.

Unlocked iPhone 4S now available for pre-order in the US originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to the photo search engine Skylines, iOS devices account for 39% of all photos posted on Twitter. Of the 24 million photos posted to Twitter in the week of October 22nd to October 29th, Twitter for iPhone came in highest with 21%, Instagram accounted for 13% and the iOS 5 Camera and Photos app accounted for 5%, bringing the total to 39%.

Apple’s new iOS 5 introduced integrated Twitter functionality, bringing posting of photos to Twitter directly from the Camera and Photos App. iOS 5 has only been out since October 12th and it’s already the 7th biggest photo client for Twitter.

Other big players were Twitter for Blackberry at 12% and Twitter for Android at 10%. Twitpic accounted for 8%, but was not counted towards the iOS percentage because it is a multiplatform client.

Read Skylines’ report on their blog here.

[Via TNW]

Report: 39% of photos on Twitter posted from iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s an interesting hardware software product coming from Treehouse Labs next year that is a kind of reversal on the Find my iPhone service. It’s called BiKN, pronounced like “beacon,” and it allows you to use small hardware tags that hook to keys, cameras, pets or even people so you can locate them.

The system also includes a special case for your iPhone that contains a receiver that interacts with the tracking tags, and of course an iOS app that makes the system complete. Up to 8 tags can be tracked at any time.

The tags have a slider that reveals a micro-USB port for quick charging. Seems like an interesting idea, and we’ll certainly look at it when it ships. There’s no word on price, what distance restrictions there are (I can see some privacy issues surfacing), or an exact date for availability. You can see a video of the BiKN in operation on YouTube.

[Via eCoustics.com]

BiKN will turn your iPhone into a homing device originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You probably remember Booyah’s MyTown, which eventually claimed more users than even Foursquare for a time. Booyah’s management has switched up a bit since then, but the company is still plugging away at the iOS market, most recently releasing a sequel to MyTown called (not surprisingly) My Town 2. This version runs is more of a traditional social game, similar to Farmville, Cityville or any number of time-based management titles.

Much like the original, the draw of My Town 2 is that you build cities with real places from your own neighborhood. Checking in to those places helps you break open rewards and items that you can’t get anywhere else. Unfortunately, this means My Town 2 is sticky with the marketing. There’s a whole lot of brand placement and not a lot of game play. I’d prefer more action and less marketing of the in-app purchases.

But Booyah has been at this a while and they’ve reached an acceptable balance, especially considering that this is a freemium game and service. If you enjoyed the first MyTown, or if you just want to see what Booyah is all about, My Town 2 is well worth the download. It’s free on the App Store in a universal version right now.

Daily iPhone App: My Town 2 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More and more people are getting iPhones, Androids and all these other smart phones that support mobile apps. It’s one of the best ways for businesses to expand their services and drive traffic to their business. After all, it’s much easier to have an app make you the money rather than trying to get people to pick up the phone and call you or wait around for them to get home and onto your website. It’s why mobile application development is one of the leading start-up businesses.

There are plenty of different places to get a mobile application designed. The problem is that they’re quite expensive. You might be able to figure out how to create your own, but it will probably look very basic. Instead, a good mobile application development software can make it even easier, so that you can build great looking apps all by yourself.

The Mobile design Starter Kit includes all the themes and scenarios you need to build whatever app you want. There are customizable and standard files that allow you to sell or offer anything you want through the kit. Everything is there, so once you spend the money, you can create as many mobile apps as you want – and even sell the apps if this is your thing.

Think about the type of business you have. If you’re a restaurant, you can create an app that gives everyone instant access to your menu. You may even be able to create an app that lets people place pick up or to-go orders or make reservations. The sky is the limit in terms of creating apps that will help your business tremendously.

Every consumer is looking for apps on his phone. It’s not uncommon for someone to have 50 or even 100 apps on their phone. It’s because they’re searching for convenience. If you’ve got a business, you need that app to get their attention. Without it, they’re moving on to your competition who does have an app.

Mobile application development has never been so important than it is right now. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars with a website designer. You don’t have to go with a rudimentary app, either. When you get the Mobile Design Starter Kit, you get everything you need to get the party started. There’s a full book to teach you how to create apps, all the menus and arrows you need, sounds, graphics and best of all, it’s built for the iPhone, Android and many other systems.

Forget about paying someone else for your mobile application development. Put the power in your hands and create your own apps. It’s the best way to get exactly what you want and you can update it as many times as necessary. For a limited time only, the Mobile Design Starter kit is comes with a huge discount: $just $77 instead of $199!!

Today we present collection of the best extension for Joomla! for November 2011 .

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Back in April I gave you a preview of Condition ONE, a disruptive technology about to wash over traditional journalism. The app promised to allow viewers to become completely immersed in the event they are watching thanks to the proprietary camera technology used to record the event and the iPad itself. No longer would our view of events be limited to the journalist’s point of view, the app promised. Through it, viewers could tilt, pivot, and swipe around the footage, giving themselves complete control to manipulate the footage and change their field of view at will.

Condition ONE is now live in the App Store, and I’m happy to say it’s lived up to its promise. The app is the brainchild of war documentarian Danfung Dennis, whose film Hell and Back Again won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. In April I said that Condition ONE could be likened to the moving photographs in the world of Harry Potter, but after Dennis gave me an exclusive preview of the app that I’ve played with for the last few days, I realize that Condition ONE is more like the moving images of Harry Potter on steroids.

Utilizing custom camera rigs, the technology allows photojournalists to capture an all-encompassing view of what’s going on around them. This means journalists are now able to bring in the viewer — who traditionally had a very passive role in an event — as an active participant. Using the app, viewers can rotate the iPad in any direction to get a different perspective on the action. It works so well it actually does make you feel like you’re there. While watching footage of Libyan soldiers running across a field, I actually jumped in my seat as I heard a bang go off “behind” me. When I rotated around, I saw that I was standing next to a massive gatling gun.

The app has a nice layout that gives you several options of how you can explore the footage it offers. When you launch Condition ONE, you’re able to search by filmmakers or stories. Selecting “Stories” will take you to a screen that shows you all the available stories. Tap any story to view its individual episodes. No video footage is actually embedded in the app when you download it from the App Store; instead, you can choose to download an event’s footage on the “Episodes” page. A short preview of the event is usually available to download, or you can choose to download the full version for the “full immersive experience.” Because you’re downloading a file that offers a full immersive 360 degree experience and not just a traditional video file, the sizes can be quite large. For example, a 1 minute 49 second preview is 194 MB, and a 9 minute 40 second movie is 1.6 GB. A different 11 minute episode is 2.5 GB. However, the large file sizes are well worth the download.

What’s almost as good as the immersive footage itself are the video biographies of the filmmakers. As you view a bio of a filmmaker, his image moves just like those in Harry Potter photographs. Tap on the filmmaker’s body to see him come to life and explain why he does what he does. Hearing from the photojournalists who are out on the front lines, many times literally putting their lives at risk to report on the atrocities committed against the world’s least fortunate, is nothing short of moving. Particularly poignant was French journalist Patrick Chauvel talking about how wars move like tides around the world, and why he chose to live the life of a war documentarian: “You meet people who need your story. I feel responsible for the people who are far away suffering…so I tell their story to people who don’t have the time and who can’t go to their places. No one will ever forget what happened in the death camps in Germany because of [photojournalism].” He goes on to say that photojournalists are witnesses to crimes and without a witness there is no crime.

That’s what makes Condition ONE such a powerful and disruptive tool in photojournalism. It makes everyone a witness to an event as if they were actually there living it. After using the app I think it’s fair to put Danfung Dennis with the likes of entertainment filmmakers James Cameron or George Lucas. Both filmmakers were visionaries who had to create their own custom camera rigs in order to advance filmmaking. And that’s what Dennis had to do to advance his vision for the future of photojournalism. It’s the proprietary camera rigs and software that Dennis and his team have created that allows them to record events like no one before. But unlike Cameron’s and Lucas’s movies these events aren’t fantasy, and they have a very real and costly effect on human lives.

You can check out the gallery below and also this video to see how Condition ONE works, but you’ve really got to try it out for yourself to get the full experience. Condition ONE is now available as a free download in the App Store.

The future of photojournalism: Condition ONE puts you in the middle of world events originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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